SignStorey Rolls Out Instore Network at 131 Pathmark Supermarkets in the Northeastern USA

12/13/2004

Pathmark Stores, a regional supermarket chain located in the northeastern USA, is currently rolling out a digital media network which will be visible in the interior of all of its stores in the New York City/New Jersey/Philadelphia region. According to SignStorey, the digital media company that owns and operates the interior network, the Pathmark network will be completely installed by the end of January 2005.

John Derderian, Pathmark's executive vice president of business strategy and marketing, said: "Pathmark is committed to providing a superior shopping experience in our stores. SignStorey helps us to achieve that goal by providing up-to-date product, store and consumer information to our shoppers. This makes the shopping experience easier and better for our customers."

SignStorey CEO Virginia Cargill said: "Today's shoppers want more information where and when they are making their purchasing decisions. SignStorey's programming will provide shoppers with the information they want and will provide relevant food preparation and entertaining ideas, health and wellness information and more. We look forward to working with Pathmark to develop an even more exciting shopping environment in their stores."

At Pathmark, shoppers will also be exposed to another screen-media network at the checkout lanes operated by Premier Retail Networks (PRN). According to an article published in the New York Post on 6 December 2004, content on PRN's checkout-lane network at Pathmark will include advertising, as well as "short segments on the latest celebrity gossip, health and fitness - and, of course, food".

New SignStorey management focus on groceries
The Pathmark project marks something of a coming-out party for SignStorey, which was founded in 2000 as a spin-off from Gerber Scientific, a Connecticut company that produces technologies for large-format printed and lettered advertising signage.

Originally SignStorey was installed in a network of independent liquor stores in the Northeastern and mid-Atlantic states. Then, in 2002, SignStorey brought in new management with instore advertising experience who redirected the company towards the grocery industry. The Pathmark network is the first major installation for SignStorey in the increasingly competitive market for screen media networks directed at U.S. supermarket shoppers.

According to Cargill and John Stevenson, SignStorey's senior vice president of sales and marketing, the company expects to announce other screen-media rollouts at U.S. supermarket chains in the next few weeks.

At Pathmark, the 42-inch plasmas used for the screen network are split into three content zones:

The right one-third of the screen features Pathmark's logo, Pathmark weekly specials, new product information and department information.
The left two-thirds of the screen shows a six-to-eight-minute loop, 50 percent consumer content and 50 percent advertising, with ads running 15-30 seconds.
A news ticker containing news, weather and sports.

Ad rates based on CPM
Cargill and Stevenson said that SignStorey provides the network to Pathmark. Advertising is sold on a cost per thousand (CPM) basis. SignStorey is what the company calls a "full service provider" for instore TV networks -- similar to PRN -- because SignStorey:

produces content, in collaboration with its content partners including CondeNet, Taunton Press, Cooking.com, Prevention, and The Fretz Kitchen, sells all the third-party advertising on the network, operates its own network operations center (in Marblehead, Massachusetts) and controls its network with proprietary software.

Pathmark's network uses 42-inch plasma screens from NEC, with one screen placed in each store. The installation and maintenance work on the network is being done by SBC Communications, a major telephone and telecommunications service provider in the USA. Dell PCs are used as players to drive the Pathmark screens.

At Pathmark, the SignStorey screens are visible in the packaged meats and delicatessen area. They are positioned about two meters above the floor.

Both Stevenson and Cargill formerly worked for SignStorey board chairman Bruce F. Failing, Jr. at ACTMEDIA, a leading instore advertising firm based in Connecticut that was sold in 1997 to News America Marketing, a division of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. ACTMEDIA's advertising services included signage on shopping carts and shelves and shelf-level coupon dispensers at supermarkets, pharmacies and other mass merchants.

Chairman Failing also formerly owned The Newborn Channel, a narrowcast network that is beamed into over a thousand maternity wards in U.S. hospitals. Acting as CEO of The Newborn Channel's parent company Lamaze Publishing, he sold that company to iVillage.com in July 1997. Cargill was the president of The Newborn Channel.